Large employers expect their health insurance costs will increase 7 percent next year, the Washington Business Journal reported. The estimate is based on a survey conducted by the National Business Group on Health. “Rising health-care costs continue to plague employers at an alarming rate,” said Helen Darling, the association’s president and CEO. “Although cost increases have stabilized somewhat, they are still on a higher base from last year and are simply not sustainable, especially when our nation’s economy and workers’ wages are virtually flat and everybody is struggling.” Darling said that health-care reform will likely make cost increases worse, not better, because of the mandated benefits required by the law.